Benefacts chair criticises Government's reasoning for terminating the nonprofit

Benefacts was first set up in 2014 at the behest of former Department of Public Expenditure and Reform secretary-general Robert Watt, with equal funding from the State and from philanthropic concerns. File picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins

The reasons given by the Government for terminating a well-regarded State-funded not-for-profit providing financial information on the charities sector have been dismissed by the now-defunct company.

In a letter to the Public Accounts Committee, the chair of Benefacts says the body’s employees “were astonished” to be told in July 2020 by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform — to whom Benefacts had been accountable — that its plan was to terminate the organisation’s State funding.